Forever in Our Hearts & Memories April 7, 2014 18:13 5 Comments

Back in September of last year, I had announced on this blog that I was expecting my first child. Evelyn (we called her Evie) was born on February 7th, three weeks early, but passed away unexpectedly six weeks later on March 20th from an undetected intestinal abnormality. It's been a painful time for me and my husband but the love, strength, and prayers from family, friends, colleagues, and our church has really helped us cope with her death. My daughter Evie was also born with a cleft lip and palate. We had known about this since my 20-week ultrasound and had already been meeting with the surgical team that would be performing the repairs but the first surgery would not have been until she was at least 10 weeks old. For those of you who would like to help us honor her memory, we have set up a memorial in her name with Smile Train, an international children’s charity that provides free surgery to poor children suffering from cleft lip and cleft palate.


The response has been overwhelming and the memorial has raised over $12,000 to date. We have been so moved by people's support and generosity. Knowing that Evie's spirit lives on in the lives of these children who will get a second lease on life has been both heartwarming and healing for us. If you would like to see more pictures or know more about the time we had with Evie, I had been working on a personal digital scrapbook that I was planning to share with her one day. Sometimes life just doesn’t make sense but one thing that’s for sure is Evie has taught us to cherish each and every day with your loved ones as you never know if you'll have 60 years or just 6 weeks with them. It’s so easy to take people for granted but every day you have with them is truly a blessing. Thanks again for your prayers, condolences, and notes of sympathy and support.

xo-Joyce